Former Penn basketball head coach Jerome Allen alleged in court on Monday that Bowman knew about a bribery scheme to get a player onto the Quakers basketball team.

www.al.com

Former Pennsylvania basketball coach Jerome Allen testified on Friday that he took around $300,000 in bribes from Philip Esformes to get his son, Morris, on the basketball team, according to a Philly.com storypublished on Monday evening that cited Law360.com.

Allen testified that former Penn assistant, and current first-year Auburn assistant Ira Bowman knew of the scheme, and was subsequently brought into it after Allen was fired by Penn in 2015.​

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According to Law360.com, after being fired, Allen set up a separate account where Phillip Esformes would wire money, and Allen also gave Bowman a debit card to access the account.​

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An Auburn Athletics spokesman said the school had no immediate comment when reached earlier this evening, but the spokesman said that they were in the process of better understanding the situation.​

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Phillip Esformes was hoping to have his son accepted into the Wharton Business School, using a basketball priority slot.​

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A few days ago I mentioned, albeit off handedly, that we're looking at a team in the SECT Championship that's going to be neck deep in this whole ordeal: Auburn and LSU are in the same bracket vs UK and UT on the opposite side. It reminds me of an old idiom, "the best jokes have a degree of truth to them."

Now, Philly.com is reporting current Auburn assistant Ira Bowman is alleged to have participated in a bribery scheme while he was an assistant coach at Penn.

Bowman was named in federal court on Friday by former Penn head coach Jerome Allen, who pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from a parent to put his son on Penn’s basketball team. Allen testified Bowman continued the scheme after Allen was fired in 2015. Bowman would go on to become an assistant at Auburn in 2018.

Its AU. Doesn't matter the coach. The program. The decade. Just doesn't matter.
Its AU. One thing you can give to Malzhan he doesn't appear to be involved in such. Of course they aren't winning like the power brokers want either. So matter of time?

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Its AU. Doesn't matter the coach. The program. The decade. Just doesn't matter.
Its AU. One thing you can give to Malzhan he doesn't appear to be involved in such. Of course they aren't winning like the power brokers want either. So matter of time?

I can attest to that a little bit, at least. I know two kids playing for Auburn and what I was told that its so strict that one of the kids dad had to go all the way home and find the title for his vehicle to prove that he paid for it before compliance would clear him.

I can attest to that a little bit, at least. I know two kids playing for Auburn and what I was told that its so strict that one of the kids dad had to go all the way home and find the title for his vehicle to prove that he paid for it before compliance would clear him.

I believe that's a standard practice around the SEC now. Perhaps, and I'd assume, your P5 schools and farther on down the line as well by now. I remember learning of the process in Tuscaloosa in 2008 - '09. Kendall Kelly's background checks were quite extensive, down to insurance payments, a close examination of financing (cash paid in his case as I recall,) and more. The "hounding" his mother was receiving during that period led to to see just how far UA covered their bases.

As a side note, to my recollection the 2007 book problem, Saban's wrath and the subsequent restructuring in compliance set a lot of that up. UA had a system in place, though not as diligent.

Verified Member

I believe that's a standard practice around the SEC now. Perhaps, and I'd assume, your P5 schools and farther on down the line as well by now. I remember learning of the process in Tuscaloosa in 2008 - '09. Kendall Kelly's background checks were quite extensive, down to insurance payments, a close examination of financing (cash paid in his case as I recall,) and more. The "hounding" his mother was receiving during that period led to to see just how far UA covered their bases.

As a side note, to my recollection the 2007 book problem, Saban's wrath and the subsequent restructuring in compliance set a lot of that up. UA had a system in place, though not as diligent.